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Need help with 3.5 stealthy Sniper
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<blockquote data-quote="StreamOfTheSky" data-source="post: 5860556" data-attributes="member: 35909"><p>Crossbow can be good for a sneak attacker, you just will be limited to 60 ft range for SA. If that's a problem, snipe with spells.</p><p></p><p>You should be a rogue//wizard, possibly with a prestige class and possibly dipping out of rogue for stuff (I'm a huge fan of dipping swordsage from Tome of Battle for Assassin's Stance). Fighter actually has some VERY nice variants that make a 1-2 level dip handy.</p><p></p><p>If you're willing to use the ridiculously inferior Hand Crossbow (rogues are proficient), there is a reason to do so: it saves you a feat. How so? Well, the only reason to even be using a crossbow is the <a href="http://dndtools.eu/feats/players-handbook-ii--80/crossbow-sniper--488/" target="_blank">Crossbow Sniper</a> feat, which requires weapon focus. In Drow of the Underdark, there is a Hand Crossbow Master feat, which gives you, for hand crossbows, rapid reload AND weapon focus (both things you need) in one feat. You also need the <a href="http://dndtools.eu/feats/champions-of-ruin--27/craven--484/" target="_blank">Craven</a> feat to keep your damage high, though it can wait till later. <a href="http://dndtools.eu/feats/lords-of-madness--72/darkstalker--512/" target="_blank">Darkstalker</a> is basically mandatory in order to be sneaky, without it like half the freaking monster manual will be able to laugh off your hide / move silentl and just auto detect you. You of course want the Rapid, Precise, and Point Blank Shot any archer would. You could also dual wield w/ TWF, though you'd need a means to get a hand free to reload the crossbows and magically enhancing two weapons (and you NEED the seeking property on your crossbow(s) ) is pricy. Other feats of note: Concealed Ambush (dragon magazine) reduces the sniping penalty from -20 to -10.</p><p></p><p>For race, you want to be a <a href="http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/halfling.htm#deepHalfling" target="_blank">Deep Halfling</a>. Why deep? They have darkvision. A rogue that can't see in the dark is a poor rogue indeed. Why halfling? They get rogue substitution levels in Races of the Wild. At 1st level, you get +2d6 ranged SA but +0d6 melee SA. From there on, your SA advances as normal, so your ranged is always 1d6 higher than normal and melee 1d6 lower than normal. Should you still be in rogue for rogue 10th level, they also get a special ability replacement that tremendously helps with sniping.</p><p></p><p>For class, other than the aforementioned sub levels and possible swordsage dip... Fighter, either the Hit and Run or Targeteer version, is helpful. Read <a href="http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=9073.0" target="_blank">this guide</a> for all sorts of helpful info. For rogue, it's also essential to use the 3rd level alt. class feature from Dungeonscape, which lets you do half SA damage against anything immune to it. This will keep you from ever being worthless with SA.</p><p></p><p>Items: Seeking is essential, as any miss chance at all screws over sneak attack. Ring of blink is normally needed, but if you're gestalted w/ caster, you have spells to cover you. Note that once the bolt leaves you, it ceases to be affected by the blink spell and thus there is no 20% chance of being on the wrong plane and missing. Magic Item Compendium has crystals you can put in a weapon to sneak attack constructs and undead, but they're a bit expensive for their limited use and require a +3 weapon in order to work.</p><p></p><p>Sniper sneak attack build is very feat and item intensive and takes a lot to pull off, but can be decent.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="StreamOfTheSky, post: 5860556, member: 35909"] Crossbow can be good for a sneak attacker, you just will be limited to 60 ft range for SA. If that's a problem, snipe with spells. You should be a rogue//wizard, possibly with a prestige class and possibly dipping out of rogue for stuff (I'm a huge fan of dipping swordsage from Tome of Battle for Assassin's Stance). Fighter actually has some VERY nice variants that make a 1-2 level dip handy. If you're willing to use the ridiculously inferior Hand Crossbow (rogues are proficient), there is a reason to do so: it saves you a feat. How so? Well, the only reason to even be using a crossbow is the [url=http://dndtools.eu/feats/players-handbook-ii--80/crossbow-sniper--488/]Crossbow Sniper[/url] feat, which requires weapon focus. In Drow of the Underdark, there is a Hand Crossbow Master feat, which gives you, for hand crossbows, rapid reload AND weapon focus (both things you need) in one feat. You also need the [url=http://dndtools.eu/feats/champions-of-ruin--27/craven--484/]Craven[/url] feat to keep your damage high, though it can wait till later. [url=http://dndtools.eu/feats/lords-of-madness--72/darkstalker--512/]Darkstalker[/url] is basically mandatory in order to be sneaky, without it like half the freaking monster manual will be able to laugh off your hide / move silentl and just auto detect you. You of course want the Rapid, Precise, and Point Blank Shot any archer would. You could also dual wield w/ TWF, though you'd need a means to get a hand free to reload the crossbows and magically enhancing two weapons (and you NEED the seeking property on your crossbow(s) ) is pricy. Other feats of note: Concealed Ambush (dragon magazine) reduces the sniping penalty from -20 to -10. For race, you want to be a [url=http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/halfling.htm#deepHalfling]Deep Halfling[/url]. Why deep? They have darkvision. A rogue that can't see in the dark is a poor rogue indeed. Why halfling? They get rogue substitution levels in Races of the Wild. At 1st level, you get +2d6 ranged SA but +0d6 melee SA. From there on, your SA advances as normal, so your ranged is always 1d6 higher than normal and melee 1d6 lower than normal. Should you still be in rogue for rogue 10th level, they also get a special ability replacement that tremendously helps with sniping. For class, other than the aforementioned sub levels and possible swordsage dip... Fighter, either the Hit and Run or Targeteer version, is helpful. Read [url=http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=9073.0]this guide[/url] for all sorts of helpful info. For rogue, it's also essential to use the 3rd level alt. class feature from Dungeonscape, which lets you do half SA damage against anything immune to it. This will keep you from ever being worthless with SA. Items: Seeking is essential, as any miss chance at all screws over sneak attack. Ring of blink is normally needed, but if you're gestalted w/ caster, you have spells to cover you. Note that once the bolt leaves you, it ceases to be affected by the blink spell and thus there is no 20% chance of being on the wrong plane and missing. Magic Item Compendium has crystals you can put in a weapon to sneak attack constructs and undead, but they're a bit expensive for their limited use and require a +3 weapon in order to work. Sniper sneak attack build is very feat and item intensive and takes a lot to pull off, but can be decent. [/QUOTE]
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